1 FOR THE FIRST MUSICIAN, ON THE GITHITH :

A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH.

HOW lovely are thy tabernacles, JEHOVAH

God of hosts!
my foul longeth, nay languisheth for the courts of

JEHOVAH!
mine heart and my flesh cry aloud for the living God!

The very sparrows find an abode, .
and the swallows a nest, where they may lay their

young,
by thine altars, JEHOVAH, God of hosts!
my king, and my God!

Happy they, who dwell in thy house,
and are continually founding thy praise.
Happy they, whose strength thou art :
security reigns in their hearts.
If they pass through a desolate valley,
they shall drink from a fountain:
nay, the rain itself shall bestow its blessings.
They shall go on, from stage to stage,
until they appear before God, in Zion !

JEHOVAH, God of hosts! hear my prayer :
give ear to me, O God of Jacob!
O God, our protector, behold! and regard thine

anointed.
For better is a day, in thy courts,
than a thousand elsewhere!
I would rather live at the threshold of the house of

my God,
than dwell in the tabernacles of the wicked.
For a sun and a shield is the God JEHOVAH :

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Ver. 2. The Swallows. From a similarity of sound, the Hebrew word deror, or darur, is supposed to be the Arabic dururi ; which Forskal saw in Egypt. But as he gives not the Arabic name either in Arabic or Hebrew chara&ters, the sunilarity of sound is an unsure authority. I have therefore, with the antients, kept to the swallow, which we know builds in the walls of houses as well as the sparrow. For the rest, some interpreters, thinking it indecent that birds should nestle in the temple of God, have violently wrested the text to a different meaning: and our Green thus disposes of it: “ Even the sparrow findeth herself a house, and the ring-dove å nest, where the may lay her youngbut when shall I approach thy house and thy altars ?" A ftrange ellipsis this !-But temples of every fort have been every where the resort of certain birds: and the orientalists consider this so far from being a profanation, that they will not allow the nestlers to be disturbed.-Ver. 6, 7. These verses are to me altogether unintelligible in all the versions, that I have fecn. I have tried to make sense of them, without changing a single letter in the text; but only giving new, and I trust well founded meanings to three or four of them. But see C. R.

PSALM LXXXV.-al. LXXXIV. · Some are of opinion that this psalm was composed by Samuel, what time the Pbilistines oppressed the Israelites. But, with Venema, I would rather refer it to the times of the Maccabees. The title is,

FOR THE FIRST MUSICIAN: A PSALM BY I

THE SONS OF KORAH. THOU hast heretofore, Jehovah ! been favourable 2

to thy land :

thou hast reversed the captivity of Jacob :
thou forgavest the iniquity of thy people :
thou coveredst all their fins :
thou restrainedst all thy wrath :
thou abatedst the heat of thine anger.

Turn to us, also, thou God of our salvation:
and let thy wrath towards us cease.
Wilt thou, for ever, be wroth with us?
wilt thou protract thine ire from generation to

generation ?
Wilt thou never again revive us,
that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Show us, JEHOVAH ! thy compassion,
and grant us thy faving aid.

I think I hear, what the God JEHOVAH will say:
He will announce felicity to his people,-his wore

shippers ;
if they return no more to their folly.
Truly, his saving aid is nigh to his reverers;
to make his glory reinhabit our land.
Mercy and truth shall yet meet again :
Justice and peace shall embrace !
Truth shall shoot up from the earth,
and justice show itself from the heavens !
For, JEHOVAH being favourable to us,
the earth shall yield its full increase,
Justice shall walk before every one,
and direct his steps in the right way.

Notes. . Dr. Kennicott fancied that the first three verses of this psalm are misplaced, and belong. to ps. 60. But he did not attend to the paucity of moods in Hebrew: which has no preter-perfect; but from contin

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gency. The psalmist elegantly contrasts the former favours of God to his people, with his present seeming dereliction of them; and promises himself a return of the divine mercy.-The beauty of ver. 9. must strike every sensible reader. Indeed the whole psalm is beautiful.Ver. 14. There is here a relative without an antecedent : the text runs thus : “ Justice shall walk before him ;' without saying before wbom. Hence fome render, " the just man walks before him (i. e. God), and he (God) directeth his footsteps,” &c. Street : “ The just prospereth in his presence, because he placeth his footsteps in his way.” But neither of these can, I think, be the meaning. The meaning is well expreffed by the antient translator Symmachus; whose version I have followed. See C. R.

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PSALM LXXXVI.—al. LXXXV. This psalm seems well to correspond with its title. It was probably composed by David, during bis persecution by Saul.

A PRAYER OF DAVID. INCLINE thine ear, JEHOVAH! hear me : for distressed and deftitute I am, Save my life-fince pious am I: save thou, my God, thy servant who trusteth in thee. Have pity on me, JEHOVAH ! for thee I daily invoke. Exhilarate the soul of thy servant, for to thee, Jehovah! my soul I raise. For, good and forgiving art thou, JEHOVAH; and full of mercy to all, who thee invoke. Give ear, Jehovah! to my prayer, and attend to my fupplications. In the day of my distress I thee invoke, because thou art wont to hear me. Among the gods, there is none like thee, Jehovab! 8 nor are there any works like thy works,

All the nations which thou hast made,..
should come and worship thee, JEHOVAH !
and ought to glorify thy name.
For great art thou, and wonderful are thy works !
Thou art a fingular, and only God!",
Teach me, JEHOVAH! thy ways,
that by thy truth I may walk : .....
Direct mine heart to revere thy name.
I will praise thee, my GOD, JEHOVAH!
with mine whole heart;,.,.
and will ever glorify thy name.
For great hath-been thy kindness towards me : '
and oft hast thou rescued me from the lowest Hades.
The proud, O GOD! are risen up against me;
and an assemblage of cruel men seek my life:
for thee they have no regard !
But thou, Jehovah, art a kind and gracious God,
long-suffering, most merciful, and true.
Look on me, and have compassion on me;
impart thy strength to thy servant ;
and preserve the son of thine hand-maid.
Give fome fignal token in my favour,
that they, who hate me, may fee, and be ashamed:
since thou," JEHOVAH, helpest, and comfortest me, /

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PSALM LXXXVII.—al. LXXXVI. Wben, and by wbom, this psalm was composed, it is altogether, uncertain : I would refer it to the reign of Solomon. It is replete with strange difficulties, which I bave encountered, I fear, without success. But it was necessary to give some sense or other, or leave it altogether untranslated.

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